Name: Miles Friedman

Social Justice Group: Child Soldiers

Date of Fieldwork: February 14, 2018

Name of Organization: CAAC

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Daniel Palmer, UN Associate Political Affairs Officer

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We went to the CAAC offices and interviewed Daniel Palmer.

What I learned:

On this fieldwork we really learned how the UN works. We learned that certain countries have child soldier protection act one of those countries is the U.S. The Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA) is a United States federal statute signed into law by President George W. Bush on December 23, 2008. The law makes it illegal having a military force that recruits child soldiers. This protection act is the reason why the U.S does not have child soldiers. We also learned why some countries think it is okay to have child soldiers. For example, we learned that a lot of countries and cultures consider 15-year-old kids as adults because they take responsibilities at that age. So they feel that it is okay that their child or they think an adult is okay to go to war. Another thing that really stuck with me was that the advancement in weapons has increased the use of child soldiers because it is easier for the children to hold the weapons because they are lighter now. I think that these guns should be harder to get, and I definitely don’t understand how these rebel groups get their hands on advanced weapons.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that from this interview that you have to be willing to take time to educate people about a problem and that is exactly what Daniel Plamer did. He took time out of his busy day and educated us about child soldiers and what needs to change.